Why Is the Sphere of Innocence So Important to Children?
Key Concept: Innocence, or the willingness to be led by the Lord, is a receptacle for all things of heaven, and thus the innocence of children is a receptacle for all affections of good and truth (Heaven and Hell 341).
That innocence is a receptacle of all things of heaven, and thus the innocence of children is a plane for all affections for good and truth, can be confirmed from what has been shown...about the innocence of angels in heaven, namely, that innocence is a willingness to be led by the Lord and not by oneself... [2] Therefore little children are led from the external innocence in which they are at the beginning, and which is called the innocence of infancy, to internal innocence, which is the innocence of wisdom. This innocence is the end that directs all their instruction and progress (Heaven and Hell 341:1-2).
(1) Let him [a man] read the Word every day, one or two chapters, and learn from a master and from preachings the dogmas of his religion; and especially let him learn that God is one, and that the Lord is the God of heaven and earth...that the Word is holy, that there is a heaven and a hell, and that there is a life after death. (2) Let him learn from the Word, from a master, and from preachings, what works are sins, and that they are especially adulteries, thefts, murders, false witness, and the others mentioned in the Decalogue; likewise that lascivious and obscene thoughts are also adulteries, that frauds and illicit gains are also thefts, that hatred and revenge are also murders, and that lies and blasphemies are also false witness; and so on. Let him learn all these things from childhood to youth (Apocalypse Explained 803:2).
Although the doctrine of faith is in itself Divine, and therefore above all human and even angelic comprehension, it has nevertheless been dictated in the Word according to man's comprehension, in a rational manner. The case herein is the same as it is with a parent who is teaching his little boys and girls: when he is teaching, he sets forth everything in accordance with their genius, although he himself thinks from what is more interior or higher; otherwise it would be teaching without their learning, or like casting seed upon a rock (Arcana Coelestia 2533:2).
The Lord's innocence flows into angels of the third heaven, where all are in the innocence of wisdom, and passes through the lower heavens, but only through the innocence of the angels there, and so into infants.... But unless the parents also received that influx in their souls and in the inmost regions of their minds, they would be affected by the innocence of their infants in vain.... Hence then it is, that the innocence flowing into the souls of parents conjoins itself with the innocence of their infants. [2] That the conjunction is effected by the mediation of the senses of the body, but especially by touch can be learned by parents from experience (Conjugial Love 396:1-2).
The Word must needs be taught mediately through parents, teachers, books, and especially the reading of it. Nevertheless it is not taught by these, but by the Lord through them (Divine Providence 172:6).
Man is first introduced into the innocence of childhood, which consists in knowing what is true and doing what is good from the Lord only and not from himself, and in desiring and seeking truth only because it is truth, and good only because it is good. As man advances in age, good and truth are given him by the Lord. At first he is led into a knowledge of them, then from knowledge into intelligence, and finally from intelligence into wisdom, always accompanied by innocence.... Without this faith and a perception of it no one can receive anything of heaven. Therein does the innocence of wisdom chiefly consist (Heaven and Hell 279).
All little children are under the immediate auspices of the Lord; and the heaven of innocence, which is the third heaven, flows in with them (Heaven and Hell 332e).
The Lord flows into the ideas of little children chiefly from inmosts, for there is nothing, as with adults, to close up their ideas, no principles of falsity to close the way to the understanding of truth, nor any life of evil to close the way to a reception of good, and thereby to the reception of wisdom (Heaven and Hell 336).
[With little children in heaven] each and every object seemed to them to be alive; and thus in every least idea of their thought there is life. And it was perceived that little children on the earth have nearly the same ideas when they are at play, for as yet they have no such reflection as adults have about what is inanimate (Heaven and Hell 338).
Why Is the Sphere of Innocence So Important to Children?
Key Concept: Innocence, or the willingness to be led by the Lord, is a receptacle for all things of heaven, and thus the innocence of children is a receptacle for all affections of good and truth (Heaven and Hell 341).
That innocence is a receptacle of all things of heaven, and thus the innocence of children is a plane for all affections for good and truth, can be confirmed from what has been shown...about the innocence of angels in heaven, namely, that innocence is a willingness to be led by the Lord and not by oneself... [2] Therefore little children are led from the external innocence in which they are at the beginning, and which is called the innocence of infancy, to internal innocence, which is the innocence of wisdom. This innocence is the end that directs all their instruction and progress (Heaven and Hell 341:1-2).
(1) Let him [a man] read the Word every day, one or two chapters, and learn from a master and from preachings the dogmas of his religion; and especially let him learn that God is one, and that the Lord is the God of heaven and earth...that the Word is holy, that there is a heaven and a hell, and that there is a life after death. (2) Let him learn from the Word, from a master, and from preachings, what works are sins, and that they are especially adulteries, thefts, murders, false witness, and the others mentioned in the Decalogue; likewise that lascivious and obscene thoughts are also adulteries, that frauds and illicit gains are also thefts, that hatred and revenge are also murders, and that lies and blasphemies are also false witness; and so on. Let him learn all these things from childhood to youth (Apocalypse Explained 803:2).
Although the doctrine of faith is in itself Divine, and therefore above all human and even angelic comprehension, it has nevertheless been dictated in the Word according to man's comprehension, in a rational manner. The case herein is the same as it is with a parent who is teaching his little boys and girls: when he is teaching, he sets forth everything in accordance with their genius, although he himself thinks from what is more interior or higher; otherwise it would be teaching without their learning, or like casting seed upon a rock (Arcana Coelestia 2533:2).
The Lord's innocence flows into angels of the third heaven, where all are in the innocence of wisdom, and passes through the lower heavens, but only through the innocence of the angels there, and so into infants.... But unless the parents also received that influx in their souls and in the inmost regions of their minds, they would be affected by the innocence of their infants in vain.... Hence then it is, that the innocence flowing into the souls of parents conjoins itself with the innocence of their infants. [2] That the conjunction is effected by the mediation of the senses of the body, but especially by touch can be learned by parents from experience (Conjugial Love 396:1-2).
The Word must needs be taught mediately through parents, teachers, books, and especially the reading of it. Nevertheless it is not taught by these, but by the Lord through them (Divine Providence 172:6).
Man is first introduced into the innocence of childhood, which consists in knowing what is true and doing what is good from the Lord only and not from himself, and in desiring and seeking truth only because it is truth, and good only because it is good. As man advances in age, good and truth are given him by the Lord. At first he is led into a knowledge of them, then from knowledge into intelligence, and finally from intelligence into wisdom, always accompanied by innocence.... Without this faith and a perception of it no one can receive anything of heaven. Therein does the innocence of wisdom chiefly consist (Heaven and Hell 279).
All little children are under the immediate auspices of the Lord; and the heaven of innocence, which
is the third heaven, flows in with them (Heaven and Hell 332e).
The Lord flows into the ideas of little children chiefly from inmosts, for there is nothing, as with adults, to close up their ideas, no principles of falsity to close the way to the understanding of truth, nor any life of evil to close the way to a reception of good, and thereby to the reception of wisdom (Heaven and Hell 336).
[With little children in heaven] each and every object seemed to them to be alive; and thus in every least idea of their thought there is life. And it was perceived that little children on the earth have nearly the same ideas when they are at play, for as yet they have no such reflection as adults have about what is inanimate (Heaven and Hell 338).
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